Stakeholders in Gambian football, namely clubs, affiliate associations and regional associations are still waiting for the Gambia Football Federation to inform them about the latest in the D90 million Fifa and Caf relief funds for Gambian football as a result of the Covid- 19 pandemic.
Already, many parts of the West African region including Senegal and Ghana, have disbursed theirs to their members. The Gambia Football Federation has initially scheduled July 18 to hold an AGM where delegates will discuss how the monies should be spent. According to the GFF, it is the delegates who would eventually decide how the money would be spent. However shortly before the said AGM, Football House announced it has been put off because a certain regulation from Fifa on how the monies should be spent did not arrive.
Now that the regulations have been published on the Fifa website, The Standard contacted Secretary General Lamin Jassey as to when will the Gambian stakeholders get their funds. He replied: ”Well that will be an executive decision but am aware that the process such as consultations are on. It is important to know that the Fifa regulations provided that the member associations, for example the GFF must first apply for the funds and that all monies must be properly accounted for”.
Meanwhile The Standard has learnt that tension is gradually mounting between the GFF and most members over how the money should be spent. Our information, sourced from many club and association officials is that most members would almost certainly resist any attempt by the GFF to initiate or fund projects from the money. ”We have to be told what happens to all the elaborate projects they have been designing and seeking funds for all these years,” some officials who wrote an open concern letter to The Standard explained. Already the female clubs and officials have rejected an initial proposal prepared by the GFF female football sub-committee on how the 500.000 USD specifically allocated to female football should be spent.
The GFF first vice president Bakary Jammeh had earlier said that the GFF will allow its assembly of stakeholders to decide how the monies should be disbursed based on the Fifa regulations governing it.
